Further Reading

"Regulators may push for the spin-out because it would create a new competitor," Bloomberg wrote. "A new company formed in such a way would be the fourth-largest US cable company by subscribers, trailing the merged Comcast-Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications Inc,. and Charter Communications Inc."

Creating a new company with those customers wouldn't result in more choices for consumers in individual markets. Despite being the two largest cable companies in the US, Comcast and Time Warner Cable don't compete against each other in any regional territory.

Charter, Bright House, and Suddenlink have expressed interest in buying at least a portion of the territory Comcast intends to give up. A spinout has financial advantages for Comcast, though, as it "would probably be the most tax efficient way for Comcast shareholders to profit from a divestiture," the article said.

Comcast offered to divest itself of the 3 million subscribers when it announced its planned Time Warner Cable acquisition, though it did not say which territories it would give up. Including divestitures, Comcast would go from 22 million to 30 million subscribers after the merger, a bit less than 30 percent of the US multichannel video programming distribution market.